[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by adabass

Was thinking about a Fabia... Glad that I saw this thread - will not even think about it...

+1. I posted couple of hours earlier in another thread that Fabia is in my shortlist. Well, it is not anymore. I have read about the trouble, guess I missed the timeline. Somehow, I thought it was in the past and things would have improved by now. Feel sorry for harishv.

[sajanpt]

I was just checking about the status of Harish on the forum & at the same time wanted to let you all know that I managed to convince one of my relatives to buy a Passat when he was dying for the Superb. The best thing was I didn't have to open my mouth to do the talking. Sent this thread to him....and in an hour's time I got a phone call back thanking me to have shown him the right thing at the right time.....the testimony of BHPians !

Harish, keep the spirit alive and don't loose heart. Your efforts are paying off and will continue to do so....Truth will win one day !

[navin]

Originally Posted by sajanpt

I managed to convince one of my relatives to buy a Passat when he was dying for the Superb.

FYI VW owns the Skoda brand and even shares parts across both brands.

[sidindica]

An East Delhi Skoda dealer has been caught red handed in manufacturing fake skoda parts.
Dealership will close down soon, but time frame unknown.

The whole story:

A journalist's skoda car (not aware of the name), came to the Noida workshop of Skoda dealer called Sai automobiles for an enginr repair work and was there for about a week. Meanwhile, the guys at this dealer used to buy original parts from skoda and sell in the open market for a profit and then pick up local (read-duplicate) parts and install them in that car which came for repair. Barely a month after, the car started malfunctioning and on opening the bonnet, the journo was horrified to see all original parts being replaced by counterfeit ones. He contacted other journos, and they raided the workshop and the worst came out to be true, it was found full of fake and duplicate skoda parts.Thus event also made news on media IIRC.
Apparently, he was charged a huge amount the first time for the repair work just to discover his car break down in the middle of nowhere and to face this agony.
SKoda's policies are terribly wrong in India, they most of the time never honour warrenty claims.

Currently Sai automobiles has been pressurized by skoda and they claim to have terminated the dealership. But when will it close? God knows.
Mewnwhile all skoda buyers are requested not to deal with Sai automobiles.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by sidindica

they raided the workshop and the worst came out to be true, it was found full of fake and duplicate skoda parts.

Were these Skoda parts or VW parts?

[normally_crazy]

@ Sid - link to the media news / article ??? And how did the journos verify the parts were fake ?

[sidindica]

Originally Posted by sidindica

An East Delhi Skoda dealer has been caught red handed in manufacturing fake skoda parts.
Dealership will close down soon, but time frame unknown.

The whole story:

A journalist's skoda car (not aware of the name), came to the Noida workshop of Skoda dealer called Sai automobiles for an enginr repair work and was there for about a week. Meanwhile, the guys at this dealer used to buy original parts from skoda and sell in the open market for a profit and then pick up local (read-duplicate) parts and install them in that car which came for repair. Barely a month after, the car started malfunctioning and on opening the bonnet, the journo was horrified to see all original parts being replaced by counterfeit ones. He contacted other journos, and they raided the workshop and the worst came out to be true, it was found full of fake and duplicate skoda parts.Thus event also made news on media IIRC.
Apparently, he was charged a huge amount the first time for the repair work just to discover his car break down in the middle of nowhere and to face this agony.
SKoda's policies are terribly wrong in India, they most of the time never honour warrenty claims.

Currently Sai automobiles has been pressurized by skoda and they claim to have terminated the dealership. But when will it close? God knows.
Mewnwhile all skoda buyers are requested not to deal with Sai automobiles.

Originally Posted by sbraj

Were these Skoda parts or VW parts?

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

@ Sid - link to the media news / article ??? And how did the journos verify the parts were fake ?

This news is about 30-35 days old but I decided to wait to get a full confirmation before posting here. I came to know about this from some of the internal sources, 7-8 people to be precise. How did the journos verify-I don't know but the affected owner's car may have played a major role in this.

[ampere]

One think which I fail to understand is that why this happens only with Skoda?
For argument's sake any dealer of any brand can resort to such malpractices. Why only Skoda?

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by ampere

One think which I fail to understand is that why this happens only with Skoda?
For argument's sake any dealer of any brand can resort to such malpractices. Why only Skoda?

Possibilities:
- Skoda gives dealership/A.S.S. to shady characters without antecedents?
- Skoda gives free hand to dealers in running service centres without doing necessary checks?
- Going by the history of this thread, Skoda is fine with such incidents?
- Skoda thinks/knows that they can get away with it?
- Skoda thinks/knows that their cars will still sell?

I know the above are not rational statements. Only Skoda can explain the real reason.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by sbraj

- Skoda gives free hand to dealers in running service centres without doing necessary checks?
- Skoda thinks/knows that their cars will still sell?

I know the above are not rational statements. Only Skoda can explain the real reason.

I guess the only thing which makes sense to me is that, Skoda does not monitor the on going day to day activities in its dealerships and After sales. A crude analogy can be company owned petrol bunks versus franchises who resort adulterated fuel, as they are monitored strictly.

And on top of it they think they can get away with it.

[sajanpt]

Originally Posted by navin

FYI VW owns the Skoda brand and even shares parts across both brands.

Yeah, but the service, management, worldwide presence, reputation and the country of origin are poles apart.

[ada]

On the other hand Maruti A S S dealers are mortally afraid of the company getting wrong feedback. This comes out from the fact that after a service is done a rating form is filled and they would request and plead to give them good grades if Maruti contacts directly. This is the way I guess to monitor A S S.

[FanaticOnWheels]

Why can't these junk heads pack up and get the heck out of India? No one here needs them. If they think Indians will sit and go through all this bull, they are terribly wrong.

Just couldn't help venting out the anger that had accumulated within me on reading random posts from this thread.

They may make good cars, but if they are going to treat their Indian consumers this way, they must pay. I bet they wouldn't dare to do this in their home country.

[vtecker]

Originally Posted by sidindica

An East Delhi Skoda dealer has been caught red handed in manufacturing fake skoda parts.
Dealership will close down soon, but time frame unknown.

Why leave this serious matter deeply embedded in this thread. I feel a new thread would be great. That would I guess bring up this issue easily during searches.

[ashutoshb]

As long as people are buying their products, why will they go?